Rebirth of a Time Lord
by dark-phile-slayin-angel
Summary: What once was lost now is found... What was will be again... Nothing is ever truly forgotten...
1. Chapter One: The Most Important Woman

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This story is based off of this picture that I found, and I wasn't satisfied to find any story that really touched on the concept or did it justice. So I decided to take up the mantle. The link is above if you want to see the picture.

Please be patient with me about updates, I'm trying to write this several chapters ahead.

I don't currently have betas for this story. If you want to help me out, please let me know.

Let me know what you think, either good or bad. As much as I love kudos, I get better feedback from comments.

**Chapter One: The Most Important Woman in the Universe**

It was shortly after the wedding that the dreams began.

Dreams of space and time, dreams of running, dreams of pain and hope that broke her heart and mended it at the same time. She woke with tears trickling down her cheeks in the morning, and the dreams faded away, returning back inside the blue box within her mind.

She felt like there was a piece of herself missing, despite her happiness with her life. A feeling that was confirmed when she looked into the eyes of her grandfather. There was a grief that he had when he looked at her, much as he tried to hide it. Something she would do or say, and he would be ready to break down in tears.

Her mother had the look too, but she hid it better. She couldn't hide the change in her behavior. She and Mum had never been the best of friends, especially after she reached majority, but now she didn't nag her as much, or lay on the guilt as much anymore. She was gentler, at least with her, and more supportive. When she had finally brought Shawn home, she had dreaded the moment. It felt like the world would end. But her mother welcomed Shawn with open arms, not even dropping anvils of hints about marriage, and after the disaster of Lance, she wasn't looking to get hitched again.

She was doing well at work, medical transcription at a local doctor's office. She and the doctor's wife got along like a house on fire, almost to the chagrin to the doctor. They had been invited to the wedding, but a family emergency had cropped up, and they couldn't attend. And she had wanted to share the news of her new fortune, which had come from her granddad on her wedding day as a present, And it turned out to be a winner! A jackpot of over five hundred million pounds! The number on the enormous check that she had taken a picture with was £516,231,163 to be exact. Not that she didn't want to keep her job. She did. But now she could do everything that she planned, like making sure her granddad and mum were taken care of.

She wanted to do more, she dreamed of more, even if she couldn't remember what she dreamed about. They had moved into a new house, nothing too extravagant, but somewhere that could house her, mum, granddad, and Shawn and still give everyone space.

She was a week into unpacking the parlor when there was a knock on her door. In retrospect, she recognized that some part of her, hidden away, told her not to answer the door, to run or flee, to do anything except go to her front door. She squashed down the bizarre trepidation and twisted the knob, making a mental note to have Shawn oil the hinges when he got home.

In front of her stood a man, dressed very sharp, if Victorian costume dress was something she fancied, which she didn't. "Yes, can I help you?"

The man smirked in a way that was almost a sneer, fueling the trepidation that she had smothered initially. "I do hope so. Are you Donna Noble?"

Irritation flared a little in her. "That's Temple-Noble," she rebuked. "What do you want?"

The sneer grew in full as men without faces but with mouths filled with pointed teeth pushed in from the sides and a migraine the likes of which she had never felt erupted in her head. She fell to her knees, one hand braced against the floor while the other cradled her head, whispers stabbing like needles in her mind.

"I want the name of the Doctor," the man smugly said as he stood towering over her, the pain in her head getting worse by the second.

She managed to mumble a query before she lost herself to the darkness of unconsciousness.

"Doctor who?"


	2. Chapter Two: Lost Things To Be Found

**Chapter Two: Lost Things to be Found**

Donna awoke to the sound of dripping water and the smell of damp. She was lying on ice cold concrete and she began shivering as she regained consciousness. There was a heavy vibration in the ground that was not helping her headache at all, though it was what had woken her up. She opened her eyes slightly, then closed them again in protest to the bright light bulb swinging from the ceiling, set in motion by the vibration in the ground.

She shaded her eyes from the light with her hand and opened them again to look around. She was reminded of the spy movies she sometimes watched with Shawn, the ones that villains used to interrogate the protagonist in some underground room with a reinforced door and concrete walls. She didn't see a table, but there was a grey lump in the corner opposite to her that she thought was supposed to pass for a mattress, but had seen too much abuse. While she was inclined to not go anywhere near something so obviously rubbish, the floor was too cold for her to keep lying on, and she wasn't quite up to standing yet, so she slowly crawled over to the mattress at a far shorter distance than she anticipated, and collapsed on it.

She felt like she should be panicking as she curled into the fetal position. She should be shouting her head off for whatever lunatic had kidnapped her, but something in the back of her mind told that it wouldn't do her any good, despite it making her feel better. The man had said he wanted the name of the doctor. The doctor she worked for, is that who he was asking about? Dr. Williams wasn't anyone, really. H just ran a clinic with his wife, but…what if this was some kind of Mafia vendetta, or espionage? Maybe he was in some sort of witness protection program?

Whatever it was, this was all some sort of mistake, and she would explain that she didn't know anything. Yeah! That's what she'd do. But that never worked on the telly for the spy shows. Oh god she was gonna die, wasn't she? She'd never see Mum, or Gramps, or Shawn again. What would they do without her? She'd only been married for a few weeks, for goodness sake!

Her careening train of thought was derailed when the door opened and those men with the weird faces came in and grabbed her. Her legs were weak underneath her, and she was half-dragged from the room. The space opened up, and she saw that she was in tunnels, like for the Underground. They were bringing her to a chair that looked like it had been bolted down to the floor. There were a lot of wires coming from the back of a sort of helmet looking thing that ran down to the ground and the cables snaked along the floor.

She attempted to struggle to get away, but she felt so drained of energy. She was drooped into the chair, which reminded of the old electric chairs for execution in prisons. It even had the wrist, ankle, and chest straps, which she was promptly buckled into with nary a fuss. The funny looking man in the top hat and big nose looked on almost impassively, but Donna could see a malevolent spark of glee in his eyes at her distress.

"Well, Donna Noble, so good of you to join us," he said jovially, opening his arms wide in a mocking gesture of welcome. The sort of helmet thing was placed on her head and strapped under her chin, feeling like one of those prize grabber claws with three fingers gripping her head. "Now, we can get to the heart of the manner and you are going to give me the name of the Doctor." The smug looking man stood before her, hands clasped together at the small of his back, as if his stance determined the irrefutably of his words.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Do you mean Dr. Williams? Dr. Anthony Williams is his name," Donna expelled, her voice starting to shake at the fear she was trying to keep contained.

Top Hat Man scoffed. "As if some human filth would interest me. No, I speak of the meddlesome Time Lord himself, the Doctor."

"You're talking nonsense. Doctor who?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "If you will not cooperate, then I have no choice but to make you." He nodded his head to one of things standing next to a board of switches and dials. The creature turned the dial, and pain shot through every nerve, every muscle, and every cell of Donna's body.

A scream was dragged from behind her clenched, grinding teeth as she shuddered and twitched, trying to get free of this machine. The fastenings held fast, and she was unable to escape, shaking at the agony that she was enduring.

Her head was getting the worst of it, not only because that was the origin point, but because she felt her mind almost trying to tear itself apart. She could almost hear whispers, but in her mind, which made the pain even worse. She could feel herself losing consciousness again, and as she fell into the black, she could almost swear that a wave of gold light burst out of her head, knocking out her captors.


	3. Chapter Three: The Only Water In The For

**Chapter Three: The Only Water in the Forest**

Donna's next awakening was more confusing and painful than the last one. There was a hissing that part of her awareness registered, inconsistent but still present. Her eye lids cracked open, and glimpsed a shadow moving in her peripheral. She rolled off her side, and barely had enough energy to bring her arm up to block out the dangling light.

Another hiss came from off to the side of her, and turned her head in the direction that it came from. There was a woman crouched down against the wall. Her hair was wildly curly and a mixture of blonde and brunette. There was something about her that was familiar, and her name was on the tip of her tongue, but it wouldn't connect to her brain.

The blonde woman stayed crouched where she was, a momentary movement that seemed to hint at her want to come to Donna, but she stopped herself.

"Donna? Are you Donna Temple-Noble?"

There was a brief thought of being pleased at someone getting her name right, but she was still wary at this new stranger, as the last one that had come looking for her hadn't worked out so well.

"Donna, I need you to come to me. If I move too much in here, they'll detect me, and if that happens, then I can't get you out of here," the strange woman whispered.

Donna thought for moment, trying to clear her head of the throbbing pain within. There was a brief flash of the woman in front of her, with a feeling of pity and wonder, and a feeling of trust. The version of the woman was older, and her riotous curls contained as she stood before her in a spacesuit. She blinked, and the current version swam back into her view. She mentally weighed her options, and made her decision.

Donna rolled over on her stomach, her limbs numb and throbbing at the same time, a paradox that she wasn't sure how it could be, but it was and she could attest to the possibility. She inched her way over to the woman, a painful crawl of arms and legs that she had mentally scream at to keep moving. The woman quietly encouraged her with words and outreaching hand, and she was able to ignore the beginning of a burning sensation in her mind.

When she was a metre or two away from her would-be rescuer, there came a sound of thundering footsteps at a distance approaching swiftly. Donna managed to reach out her hand to the woman just before the door to her prison opened, and the curly haired dirty blonde slid her opposite hand under Donna's outreaching one at her wrist where a device was wrapped around it. The woman slapped her hand on top of Donna's and pressed a button. Donna's ears barely caught the edge of a furious bellow of rage before the room disappeared around her.

* * *

Donna's head swam as she reopened her eyes, blinking at the glaring sun above her as she lay sprawled on stone beneath her. A shadow moved over her face blocking out the sun, and looked into the face of the woman who'd rescued her standing above her. The woman reached out a hand to help her up, clasping her under her elbow to steady as she gained her balance.

She ignored the strange looks they received from passersby, whether it was their abrupt appearance, or her rescuer's strange looking clothes. She realized that she didn't know the woman's name. "Who are you, by the way? You know my name, but I don't know yours."

The woman smiled at her. "My name is River Song."

Donna nodded, and reached out her hand to shake River's. "Nice to meet you, River. Now if you could point in the direction where I can get a cab so I can go home, that'd be brilliant."

River let go of Donna, and stepped away. "I'm sorry, Donna. I am so sorry, but I can't let you do that."

Donna narrowed her eyes at the woman, and crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, and how're you gonna stop me, blondie?"

River sighed slightly. "I'm not threatening you, but if you go home again, you will be taken again and I may not be able to get you out this time. The Great Intelligence will not stop until he gets what he wants from you."

"Is that the bloke in the top hat? He doesn't seem so scary," Donna blustered, but a shiver of dread betrayed her mask of bravado.

"He is, in fact, very dangerous and very ruthless. And I think you know that," River said.

"So we can call the police on him and let them take care of him and the freaky bunch of blokes with no faces with him." Donna turned away and started to walk down the street, trying to see if there was something she recognized about her surroundings, aside from the fact that they were in Cardiff. River followed her, matching her slow but steady pace easily

"The police would be slaughtered if they were to approach him. There is only one man who can defeat the Great Intelligence. And that is the Doctor."

The word 'Doctor' reverberated through Donna's mind, and the burn that had faded since their escape clawed its way back across her brain.

"What doctor are you talking about?" Donna placed a hand on her head as if to push away the burning, and backed away from River. "That bloke asked about a doctor, too. Was this some sort of trick? You're really with him, aren't you?" Her voice was rising with her anger as the accusation passed her lips.

River held up her hands in a placating gesture as she inched closer to Donna, who continued to move away. "I'm not with the Great Intelligence. He is no friend of mine, but the Doctor is. He's your friend, too. You just don't remember."

"What d'you mean, don't remember? The only doctor I know is Dr. Williams, who I work for, and I don't think he's up to anything barmy."

River had a slight smile on her face reminded Donna of the Mona Lisa, like she knew an amusing secret and was leaving you out of the joke. "I doubt Dr. Williams up to anything aside from treating his patients." She paused. "But the Great Intelligence is seeking not just any doctor, but the Doctor. The most singular being in the entire universe. He is a man not of this world, and has saved this planet more times than can be counted, and he has been a long time enemy of the Great Intelligence." Out of the corner of her eye, River realized that they were being followed. As they passed by store windows, she tried to see the reflection of the person tailing them.

It took a couple of windows to get a better picture of who she might be up against. It was a woman, dressed in modern clothes, of petite stature and with dark brown hair that hung past her shoulders. A black leather jacket, well used and comfortable across her frame as strode down the street in an effort to keep up River and Donna.

River waited until the unknown woman was briefly distracted by a bicyclist crossing her path, almost running her over, when she grabbed Donna's arm and pulled her down an alley and to the back of the building. She swung Donna around until she was behind her. She pulled out a gun that Donna hadn't noticed that had been strapped to River's thigh and pointed it at the corner nearest to the entrance of the back alley they were hidden in.

Donna opened her mouth to say something, but the scrape of rubber soles on asphalt alerted her to the presence of someone heading their way. She glanced around for something to be used as a weapon. A dented skillet provided the only thing that wasn't too flimsy or heavy for her. She retook her place behind River, clasping both hands on the handle, ready to bash someone should they come too close to her. As much she didn't like being cornered, somehow this all felt familiar to her. There was a spike of the burning in her mind as another image flashed before her eyes of an enormous wasp flying at her as she ducked out of the way.

A woman came around the corner with a gun in her hands. River raised her blaster until it lined up with the woman's head as she came fully around the corner. River pressed her blaster against the woman's temple. "Give me your weapon." The woman had stopped moving, and released her gun until it spun and was held only by a finger in the trigger well. She held it out far enough that River's balance was compromised trying to reach, and the woman turned and grabbed for River's gun as she reached for the woman's.

They ended up facing each other, with their opposite weapons in hand. River felt a moment of irritation as well as admiration; for it isn't often someone got the drop on her. "Who are you, and why are following us?" she asked

The woman looked between the two of them, and answered. "The two of you appeared out of nowhere. I got a mate or two that are constables that give me a heads up on anything out the ordinary, especially in Cardiff." A Welsh accent colored her words. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you got here by vortex manipulator. That kind of technology is not of this earth, at least not yet."

River quirked an eyebrow at her knowledge. "There are only two organizations in this time and place that would have that kind of information, and you don't look like UNIT. So that would make you-"

"Torchwood. Not that it exists anymore."

"If you were Torchwood, you wouldn't happen to know Captain Jack Harkness, by any chance?"

The woman flinched slightly, but enough that River noticed. The woman gripped River's blaster a little tighter. "How exactly do you know Jack?"

River's Mona Lisa smile returned to full force. "Let's just we've been known to see the same Doctor."

The woman's eyes widened and she lowered River's blaster. "You know the Doctor?"

River contemplated lowering the gun in her hand. "We've crossed paths."

The woman turned the blaster in her hand, with the butt towards River, offering its return. "If you know Jack and the Doctor, then you are not my enemy, or a threat to Earth. My name is Gwen Cooper. If you need my help, then you have it."

At this, River lowered Gwen's gun, spun and offered it back to her. They exchanged their weapons back to their original owners, and River offered her hand. "River Song and this is Donna Temple-Noble."

Gwen started at the second name. "Donna? We haven't met directly, but we saw each other via computer screen when the Daleks stole the Earth and twenty six other planets."

Donna had another brief flash of an image in her mind, that of two men who were so indistinguishable from each other, that the only way to tell them apart was their clothes. There was a greater burn with this image, as if she were getting closer to whatever mystery was going on with her.

"That's mental, that is! How can a planet be stolen? Are you one of those conspiracy nutters or somethin'?" She hated the feeling that there was something she was missing, like others saw something she couldn't. Another of images of people looking at something behind her, like there was something on her back flash into her head, compounding the previous wave of pain.

River cut off whatever Gwen was going to say as she grabbed for Donna's arm when it looked like she was losing her equilibrium. "There isn't time for this conversation right now, at least not out in the open. We need to secure Donna somewhere so that we can track down the Doctor."

Gwen nodded grimly. "D'you think that Jack could help?"

"I'll take all the help I can get as long as it can get me to the Doctor so that we can fix Donna. And it's always a pleasure to work with Captain Jack Harkness." The lascivious smirk on River's face was on that Gwen was familiar with, especially pertaining to her former boss.

"If you'll come with me, I know somewhere where we can hide out. It should still have medical equipment there. Somewhere." There was a wistful quality to her statement that River understood and Donna was oblivious to.

Donna tried to shrug off River, but that only caused dizziness to take hold. "There's nothing wrong with me! It's the rest of the world that's gone barmy!"

River looked over at Gwen, a pitying look of sorrow on her face as she took a deep breath before she took the figurative plunge. "I'm sorry, Donna. But something was taken from you, in order to protect you, to save your life. But now, the danger to you and the rest of reality is too great to leave you as you were. And we need to find the Doctor and convince him to return you to your former state."

Donna looked at River, a slightly frightened look in her eyes. "What was taken from me?"

River looked the redhead in the eye, unwilling to flinch away from the truth.

"You lost yourself."


	4. Chapter Four: Outside the Government, Be

**Chapter Four: Outside the Government, Beyond the Police**

The three women moved briskly through the pedestrian avenues, through buildings and across streets. Gwen was moving ahead of them leading the way, while River had a hand on Donna's arm, which was as much to support her through her loss of balance as to secure her at her side. Needless to say, Donna was well fed up with the mystery of her companions, and their insistence at whatever weirdness might be surrounding her.

Donna stopped short, pulling River with her, who audibly signaled Gwen to stop. "I'm not going another inch until you explain to me what the Hell is going on? Why did those blokes kidnap me? What the hell was taken from me? And where the bloody hell are we going? I want some answers, blondie!"

Gwen could see that River's patience was wearing thin at constantly being questioned. River spoke calmly, but also conveyed a sense of solemnity. "Donna, right now the most dangerous place for you is out in the open. We are going somewhere that can hide us and maybe help, also. I believe the Great Intelligence, while trying to extract information from your mind, triggered something that if not handled properly, will kill you in the very near future. Now, I am begging you for your own sake, please don't ask any more questions and let us get to the location where we'll be safe. I promise, when we get there, I will tell you everything."

Donna swallowed audibly, her shoulders dropping in defeat. "Well, isn't that just wizard?" She started walking forward to catch up with Gwen, but stopped as River hadn't moved. "Oi, what are you waiting for? Let's get a move on, then!"

River shook her head in bemusement at the redhead, wondering how the Doctor managed to not regenerate in sheer frustration. The rest of the journey was silent on the parts of the group, none contributing to the sounds of the city around them as they made their way to the Plass, each lost in their thoughts.

They trailed Gwen into what looked like a tourist information shop. Behind the counter, she entered a code on a keypad, and a door opened. "Mind your step, this place got bombed a while back and we never go the chance to rebuild." The women stepped around rubble and scorched metal, and climbed over debris that was too big to go around as Gwen led them to an area that looked like a vault. "Ianto left me an access code or two for some select items, one of which we need to contact Jack. I'm pretty sure that he's not in our current time at the moment, so we'll need to send a message to his vortex manipulator." Gwen went over to a panel that seemed to still be sealed and enter another code. The panel beeped, and the lock released. Gwen opened the door and pulled out something that looked, to Donna, like some weird alien cellphone/calculator. "I memorized a set of numbers, which I think, would be a contact number for Jack, but I think there's more than that that needs to be entered."

River nodded her head in agreement. "You enter the number that Jack gave you, and I'll do the rest. I'll take that while you try to find some medical equipment so we can examine Donna?" River took the device at from her and Gwen began to pick her though another area that had once medical.

Donna crossed her arms in front of her. "Alright now, are you gonna tell me what's going or what?"

River finished her own entry of numbers into the alien machine. And put it down on the semi-intact looking table next to her. She turned to Donna, and looked her in the eyes. "A couple years ago, you encountered a man called the Doctor. It was during your wedding to Lance. Then, later on, you ended up traveling with him. You were exposed to something that altered the biology of your brain. In order to repair you mind and prevent it from killing you, he was forced to take your memories of him away."

Donna was still perplexed, but she was happy to finally start getting some answers, even if they hurt. As River spoke, spikes of burning were accompanied by flashes of images of a man in a suit and room that looked like it was made of coral. "Who is this Doctor bloke I keep getting asked about anyways?"

River's lips quirked into a small smile. "The Doctor is a legend across time and space. He's the last of the race called Time Lords, and travels in a ship called the TARDIS all over the universe and anywhere in time he wants to go. I grew up with stories of the Doctor, and I've seen firsthand how amazing he is. They say that you can measure the character of someone by looking at the quality of his enemies. The Doctor has made enemies of races of creatures of hate, malice, and war that quiver in fear at the sound of his name, and the sound that ship makes when it appears is the sound of hope for those in need of him."

"If he's so great, then what's he doing with me?" Donna asked nonplussed, and was confused at the sense of déjà vu at asking that question. The answer she received didn't help dispel the feeling.

"He thought you were brilliant." River's smile was full blown. "The Doctor often travels with humans from Earth for the most part." She was interrupted from saying any more by the return of Gwen.

"I found a few scanners that weren't damaged in the blast. I'm not sure what does what, but I'm pretty sure this one does body scans, and this one measures brain waves." Gwen handed them to River, who placed them on the table next to the alien pager. "Have you sent Jack a message yet?"

River nodded. "Already done. Now Donna, can I use this to scan you to see what the Great Intelligence has done to you and if we can stabilize it?" Off of Donna's look, she answered the unspoken question. "The Great Intelligence is a long-time enemy of the Doctor. He's an alien AI that was able to build a physical form, but aside that I don't know much about him, other than the fact that he hates the Doctor and will stop at nothing to see him destroyed."

"How did you know where to find me, and how to find me? And you had said something about not being detected if you didn't move. What did you mean?" Donna asked to cover her nervousness about the scan being done on her. She didn't feel anything, but it still weirded her out a bit, being scanned by some alien bits and bobs. Who knows what it says?

River took in her symptoms of nervous and calmly explained. "I was avoiding detection with a perception filter. It's like, if you look at something out of the corner of your eye, but when you go to look at it properly, it's gone, as if it was never there in the first place. As long as you don't bring attention to yourself, you remain unseen in plain sight. As to how I knew to find you, I got a message on psychic paper."

Donna scoffed. "Now you're just making words up!"

River reached into her back pocket and flipped open a black, beaten up leather wallet. "This is psychic paper, one I pick-pocketed off the Doctor. It shows whatever I want it say, as long as I concentrate. What does it say now?"

Donna looked at it. "It says that the Doctor looks twelve years old." She laughed at that. "If he looks that young, how old is he really?"

River put down the first scanner and picked up the second, and started to move it around Donna's head, attempting to distract her with her answers. "I'm not sure if he even knows how old he is anymore, but he's lived for over a millennium, maybe two."

"That's impossible! Nobody can live that long!" Donna exclaimed.

"The Doctor isn't human, he's a Time Lord. Time Lords have a way of cheating death, called regeneration. If something happens to them, something fatal, as long as the regeneration process doesn't get interrupted, their bodies rebuild themselves into a new form. Some Time Lords were better at regeneration than others." There was a slight smirk on her face as she said the last part.

"You said earlier that the Doctor's the only Time Lord left. What happened to the rest?" Donna asked, crossing her arms, watching River as she moved around her with the scanner.

A shadow crossed River's face, and she stood still as she looked Donna in the eye. "There was a war, a war that spanned across time and space, the last great Time War. It was between the Doctor's people, and a race called the Daleks." She spat the last word. "The Daleks are without mercy, remorse, or restraint. They seek to destroy everything that isn't a Dalek, and even then you might not be safe. They take genocide to a whole new level. And there seems to be no end to them, no matter how much or how hard the Doctor fights them."

Donna took in River's somber state. "How come the Doctor survived if all the other Time Lords are gone?"

River grimaced. "The Time War grew too large, and both sides were taking extreme lengths to win. It got to the point where the Time Lords planned to destroy the universe in order to beat the Daleks. The Doctor has always been a rogue by the standards of his people, and he couldn't stand by and let the universe be torn apart. And so, the Doctor ended the last great Time War, destroying the Daleks, the Time Lords, and their allies on both sides." There was a mournful look on her face at her own words. "That is who the Doctor is, the one who has to make the hard decisions because no one else can or will, even if it breaks both his hearts to do so."

Any further questions that Donna might have were interrupted by a beeping sound from the contraption on River's wrist. She looked at the display, and smirked at what she read. "Captain Harkness should be arriving shortly."

Gwen had been listening to the conversation between the other two women, and made her presence known once again by asking a question. "By the way, how'd you get a vortex manipulator?"

"I stole it from a rogue Time Agent. Not Jack, though his ends up in UNIT's hands for a bit, and not the other one you might thinking of. He wouldn't have been alive to chase after me or Jack if that were the case. After the dissolution of the Time Agency in the 52nd century, all the Time Agents left scattered across time and space, some trying to help stabilize events, but most ended up becoming mercenaries like Hart. No, the one I stole this from had the misfortune of crossing me, so I don't regret taking it."

"Have you ever met the Doctor?" Donna asked, and Gwen looked interested in her answer as well.

River looked between the two of them. "Yes, I have. As I said, I grew with stories of the Doctor. I encountered him fairly recently, and I intend to find him again. That's why I'm glad we found you, Gwen. Aside from UNIT, Torchwood, or rather, Jack will probably have the most extensive information on him. If we can figure out a pattern, than we might be able to track him down and bring him here so he can help you, Donna."

River was cut off from saying anything more by the flash of white-blue light and the scent of singed ozone that accompanied the displacement of someone traveling by vortex manipulator. All three women turned toward the occurrence, shading their eyes from the blinding brightness.

Before them stood a man, at least in Donna's opinion, tall, brown haired and fair skinned, clad in in a buttoned up light blue shirt, dark trousers held up by suspenders, and a World War II officer's jacket over it. As large as the coat was, it couldn't hide the large cannon of a gun he was carrying.

"I was two hypervodkas away from winning a strip poker game with the King of Barcelona, so this better be good."


	5. Chapter Five: The Man Who Couldn't Die

AN: I'm going to at least try to get you guys caught up to my AO3 account. So here's the next chapter.

**Chapter Five: The Man Who Couldn't Die**

A stilted squeal erupted from Gwen before she launched herself into the arms of the man that had just appeared, who quickly wrapped her in his embrace and promptly kissed her square on the lips. Gwen promptly pulled away and smacked him on his arm, pointing a finger in his face. "There'll be none of that now, Jack. You know I'm with Rhys, who I have a child with." The smile on her face belied her scolding.

He leaned in conspiratorially, but without dropping his voice, and said, "You know I take any opportunity to steal you away. And if I may say so, you are definitely are a mum I'd like to-"

"Jack!" Gwen cut him before he finished. She chortled even as she smacked him on the arm again.

River stood by, amused, but unoffended at being ignored.

Donna had taken in the exchange, spikes of burning in her mind made it difficult maintain her balance, but she refused to succumb until she got some more answers. Any resolution to keep her distance from this stranger was abruptly derailed when he rushed over to give her a strong hug. The hug itself set off another bit of piercing fire within her mind.

"Donna! It's so good to see you again! How've you been?" Jack's jovial inquiry petered out at her awkward commiseration towards him. "Donna? What's wrong? You act like we've never met before." Jack took a quick step back, maintaining contact with her by holding her shoulders, and looked her over. "Did I come at the wrong point in the time stream? I hate when that happens."

It was at this point that River inserted herself into the conversation. "No, Captain. You are exactly where you are needed."

Jack absorbed her appearance and blanched. "Shit."

River quirked an eyebrow. "I take it we've met, at least on your end. On my end, this is our first encounter, so try not to cock it up."

Jack crossed his arms. "Hey, I happened to be a very accomplished time traveler. I know what I'm supposed to do or say, or not do or say. Of course, this clears up so much about our first meeting."

River smirked. "Was it a scream?"

Jack returned her smirk with a leer of his own. "There was some screaming, a bit of begging, and a whole lot of moaning."

"I'm sure you were in your prime." River stepped towards him gradually, and he matched her movements, so that they almost circled each other, like two predator testing the other's strength.

"I'm still in my prime, and I will be for a long, long time."

"Well, for posterity's sake, I will re-introduce myself. I'm Melody Pond."

"Captain Jack Harkness."

"Yes, I know who you are."

"You were Dr. River Song before."

"And I will be. Just not yet. Maybe I can become her soon. As it stands now, I am not yet her, but I hope to be."

Jack stopped his circling, and River followed. "What's wrong with Donna? She's older than when I met her," an indignant 'Oi' sounded from the side of them, "but she doesn't remember me. Fire-forged friends in the middle of a burning Dalek fleet tends to bond people quickly."

"The Doctor."

"He did this?"

"You met the metacrisis?"

"Yeah?"

"Not supposed to happen. He survived due to having mostly Time Lord biology to sustain the extra functions. But a Time Lord mind in a fully human physiology? She'd be brain-dead within a day."

"The Chameleon Arch-"

"Rewriting her DNA back to being human, and pulling out the TNA present. Wouldn't have worked the other way using that because the machine was never configured for humans."

"But Rose-"

"Different. The Time Vortex would have altered her, but if the Doctor hadn't pulled it out of her, she'd have died. It might've protected her with the dimension cannon more than the others."

"So how do we fix this?"

"That's why we called. We need your help to find the Doctor."

"Why do you think I might know where he is? I haven't seen him since-"

"Before he regenerated. Yes, I'm aware. But as a time traveler, especially one that has dealt with him, you'll have insight to where we might be able to pinpoint him, at least around this time."

"You seem to know a lot about him. Why can't you find him?"

"I grew up on stories of the Doctor from my parents. As for finding him, we have an inverse chronology. It's all very-"

"Timey-wimey?"

"As he would say, yes. I can't be sure which Doctor we'll need or even how to begin triangulating space-time coordinates in which to find him."

"Just look for trouble on Earth. He has a tendency to be there."

"Yes, but not all the time. You of all people know that."

Jack nodded grimly. "So what do we do about Donna in the mean time?"

River glanced over at the woman in question, who was deep in conversation with Gwen at the moment, with the occasional "You're kidding me!" sputtering out in amusement from her lips. "I can shore up her defenses, for a little longer but we need the Doctor. He's the one that did this, and he's the only one I trust to fix it."

Jack looked over at Donna as well, and then turned his eyes back to River. "What happened?"

"An enemy of the Doctor's was looking for information. Specifically, for his name. His Gallifreyan name. His True Name. In the wrong hands, that information could unravel the whole of reality with every universe at risk." She paused, taking a breath. "Because he couldn't get it directly from the source, and the metacrisis being beyond his reach, he went to the only person to share his mind."

"Which is Donna."

"Yes, but in doing so, he broke through some of the protections that the Doctor had built within her mind. That bit of disruption is eroding away the rest of it. If she doesn't get help soon, she _will_ die."

Jack let out a huff. "I don't specifically know of a way to pinpoint the Doctor's location. But I do know someone who might."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Jack had borrowed Gwen's cell phone to make a call, quietly grumbling about outdated technology and wishing for a sonic screwdriver. Gwen had snarked that if he didn't like it to get his own, to which he responded by sticking his tongue out at her. River looked on at the exchange, bemusement written all over her face, as she monitored Donna, who had taken a seat on one of the few intact chairs that could be found. The onset of the worsening headaches further served to remind River that was of the essence.

Donna raised her head out of her hands where it had been resting and asked, "Why did you give him a different name when you introduced yourself to that man? You told him that you were Melody Pond, and told me it was River Song. So which one is it?"

"Both of them are my name, Donna. My birth name is Melody Pond, but the name that the Doctor and the rest of the universe come to know me as is River Song. Both names are a part of me, even though I'm trying to figure out what they mean. I gave the Captain my birth name so that if he is able to contact the Doctor before I can, he is aware of where we are in my timeline."

Donna shook her head then quickly stopped at the slight agony that the movement caused. "All of this is so mad. I mean, men with no faces but with mouths, people poking around in my brain, appearing out of nothing, and aliens! Honest to goodness aliens! I feel like I should get sectioned!"

River knelt down in front of Donna and clasped her hands on top of the redhead's. "I know this is a lot, but the world is so much bigger than people think, and you once knew that with all your heart. I believe that the Doctor did what he thought was necessary for what he had felt that he had no other choice to do. It was either forget or die. But I believe that it was a temporary fix to a temporally complicated problem, and there is something coming that needs to be defeated and you are the key to doing just that."

Donna moved to shake her head, but thought better of it. "But I'm nobody. I'm not special or important."

River's lips quirked into a sorrowful smile. "Donna Temple-Noble, you are the most important woman in all of creation." The punctuated grimace on Donna's face told River that there was a painful connection to those words in Donna's mind. "I know you must be hurting, and I can't do much until we get to the Doctor, but I might be able to help a little." She motioned her hands to Donna's temple, to which Donna briefly nodded. River took a quick breath to steel herself, placed two fingers on each side of her head and closed her eyes.

Donna felt a sensation different from the pain she had been feeling, and gladly welcomed it, closing her eyes as well. The presence of River became greater within, and translated into a wave of colour, something that fell between gold and amber, like polished bronze on the uniforms of the Roman Legion. She almost missed River speaking to her; she was reveling so much in the calming presence within. "If there is anything you don't want me to see, put it behind a door, and I won't look, alright?" Donna lightly nodded. She felt River inside her mind, but there was another presence with her, almost like a shadow but made of golden light, warm and soothing. She could almost hear music, or singing or something, in her head, but it made her feel peaceful, and took away some of the pain.

Donna opened her eyes when River withdrew from her mind.

"Feeling better?" River queried gently.

"Loads," Donna said, relief heavy in her voice.

River smiled. "Now, I've tried to shore up the boundaries that the Doctor built in your head. It's more reinforcement than rebuilding, but it's the best I can do, for now." She moved back from Donna, whom she noted had been released from the tension that had taken hold of her body. River made her way over to where Jack and Gwen were standing, and Donna followed her. Gwen was showing Jack pictures on her cellphone. Even though he smiled as he looked on, there was a deep sorrow in his eyes that River could see that lingered. She knew there was a story there, and could guess at the cause, but now wasn't the time to try to pry into Jack's history. River asked, "So was your call a success?"

Jack brought his head up away from where it had hovered over Gwen's shoulder. He nodded solemnly. "I called in one of my not insubstantial favors that UNIT still owes me, and I happen to know someone in the chain of command. She's agreed to meet with us, but we're gonna need to go to London. Gwen's husband Rhys is giving us a ride in one of his delivery trucks. He should be here shortly. Lucky for us, he's got a delivery to London today."

Donna looked thoughtful. "This woman we're meeting, how can she help us find the Doctor?"

River smiled. "Because like me, she's also grown up with stories of the Doctor."

Jack blinked, surprise covering his face. "You've met?"

River shook her head. "Not yet, I don't believe, at least not on my end. But I've already started doing research on the Doctor, which lead me to UNIT, given his history with them, and her family name popped up often. In fact, had we not gotten a hold of you, she would have been my next choice for help."

"Good to know. And here I was thinking I wasn't expendable."

"There will be no pity parties on this team, Captain. You and the Doctor don't own all the tragedy in the universe," River said.

Jack jolted at the familiarity of the words, trying to remember back to where he had heard those words before. He narrowed his eyes at River, searching for what it was that had struck a chord with him upon meeting. She had reminded him of someone, besides the Doctor, although that was present as well, but someone else that he had come across in his wanderings. It nagged at the back of his brain, and he almost wished he had a bigger head. It would come to him eventually just who it was that she reminded him of, after all, he had plenty of time.

Jack's scrutiny of River came to an abrupt end with the chiming noise from Gwen's cell phone, which she immediately picked up.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver. "Oh, are you here already? We'll be right up, love." She hung up the phone. "That was Rhys, he's on the surface waiting for us."

Jack shouldered his gun, adjusting it so it would remain as hidden as possible by his coat. "Let's not keep hubby dearest waiting." He presented his arm to Gwen in the manner of a gentleman, which he most definitely wasn't. "Shall we, m'dear?" He waggled his eyebrows to mock his chivalry. Gwen took his invitation and her arm through his, giggling a bit at the silliness of them, but ecstatic to have her friend back. River and Donna followed the two former Torchwood agents through the material carnage of what used to be their offices.


End file.
